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style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Top
Ten
Free-to-Play Games

Week
of Apr 24 - May 1, 2010




1. Dungeons
and Dragons
Online: Eberron Unlimited


2. target="_blank">Atlantica Online href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank">

href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;">3.  href="http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html">Runes
of Magic

4.  href="http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp"
target="_blank"> href="http://www.freerealms.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856"
target="_top"> href="http://www.freerealms.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;">FreeRealms

5.  target="_blank"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2394"
target="_blank">Allods Online

6.  target="_blank"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856"
target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/771"
target="_top"> href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1841"
target="_blank">Alganon

 7.  href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/581"
target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856"
target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/581"
target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/181"
target="_blank">Sword of the New World

8.  target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856"
target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2433"
target="_blank">Aika href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856"
target="_top">

9.  target="_top">The
Chronicles of Spellborn
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/581"
target="_top">

10.  target="_top">Requiem: Bloodmayne href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/581"
target="_top"> href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2433"
target="_blank"> href="http://heroesofgaia.gpotato.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://www.gamersfirst.com/swordofthenewworld/"
target="_blank">

style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://www.freerealms.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp"
target="_blank"> href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> style="text-decoration: underline;"> href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank"> style="text-decoration: underline;">


While I had fully intended to deliver
a glittering review of
the Alganon
re-launch this week, some unforeseen circumstances slowed that
process down.  Normally
a setback of that
nature sends me scrambling for filler or to another game to review, but
this
week several big news items caught my eye and got me to wondering about
the
state of gaming and the formerly operative term of playing. Are we
still seeing
wonderful, imaginative games from people who love to play them, or are
we being
force fed formulaic drivel that was engineered to string us along and
keep our
wallets open?





Writing for Ten Ton Hammer is a fantastic gig; I must admit
that I frequently pinch myself to make sure that I haven’t just slipped
into some fanboy delusion again ( don’t worry, my therapists says I’m
cured). At any rate, while it is quite the sweet job for a lifelong
gamer like myself it can be a bit awkward when the inevitable dinner
table conversation of “So, what do you do for a living?” comes up at
family gatherings. I also have a part time job in the emergency medical
field and, while that is noble and all, this takes us up more of my
time and is far more enjoyable, and I like to think of it as my primary
occupation.



Recent news stories have given me a solution to my dilemma of how to
define myself to strangers and distant relatives – I write for a
website that focuses on an emergent technology. It’s a multi-billion
dollar sector that has a demographic so large that it spans every age,
race, gender and socio-economic classification and boasts the most
rapid exponential growth of any industry.  Or I could just say
I write about video games.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84217"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 225px; height: 168px;"
alt="Glass Ceiling"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/84217">

When WoW broke through the "glass ceiling" of MMOG
earnings, unrealistic expectations followed.


When news reports about href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84022" target="_blank">developer
acquisitions, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84135" target="_blank">CEO
departures, profit margins, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84139" target="_blank">
lawsuits and href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84095" target="_blank">market
penetration have become as numerous as the ones about the
games themselves it’s time to take a step back and look at the state of
gaming.



It is hardly a surprise that gaming has become big business, technology
has advanced and allowed the products of our endless imaginations to be
brought to life like never before. Our busy lives have become more and
more stressful and less full of recreational time; vacations are
shrinking while our workload grows. With so many of us forced to look
for less traditional forms of escape from our everyday woes, it’s no
wonder that video games have been able to establish themselves as the
preferred past time of so many people.



Just like any popular form of recreation or leisure, our spending
habits drive companies and investors to tap further and further into
our collective resource well, but unlike RV’s or fishing poles, games
have a completely different dynamic and it’s one that might be getting
lost in the shuffle of ledgers and bottom lines. When style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft
broke through the glass ceiling that had kept MMOGs pigeon holed as a
niche market, lots of people took notice. I have lost count of the
number of free-to-play games that are total WoW rip-offs and little
more than an investment tool for some venture capitalists with no
passionate backstory or inspired world.


href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/84219"> style="border: 0px solid ; width: 220px; height: 173px;"
alt="suit and tie gamers"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/84219">

The new look of game developers? 

Free-to-play gaming has only recent begun to shed the stigma of being a
copy-paste clone factory existing solely to line someone else’s
pockets, but with the economy showing no signs of improvement and game
companies looking more suit and tie and less geek and gamers, it is
only natural to be concerned about the long term health of our favorite
style of games.



So what will be the answer to these growing fears that innovation will
die on the vine while only the tried and true money makers are brought
to market? The answer, in my opinion, is summed up in one 17 letter
word – microtransactions. Free-to-play games with an item mall offer
the developer greater freedom by releasing them from the constraints of
having to worry about box sales or 60 day subscription numbers. Gamers
will run away in droves from a pay-to-play game that has robbed them of
$50.00 without ever looking back, but a business model that allows them
to come and go as they please with nary more investment than the time
it takes to download the client ensures a much more forgiving group of
players to appeal to. 



As microtransaction games continue to grow and flourish and pay-to-play
games continue to be about the bottom line, the ability to innovate and
explore the depths of imagination will once again return to the MMOG
market.  The developers can’t do this alone however, gamers
have to do their part and return their expectations to a more realistic
level. They must  begin accepting new games as just that--new
games and new worlds that we can grow and improve with – and not expect
every nook and cranny of the world to be filled to the brim with
content. 



What do you say? Will you do your part to help keep MMOGs alive and
well? Try a free-to-play or indie game today and you may just come away
a convert yourself.



src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/84215"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 450px;"
alt="MMOG revenue chart">

style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Gamers
are spending money by the truckload on MMOGs






Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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